Inevitable
by Corynth
Summary: Alright, it's up to four chapters. I believe I will post a final, fifth, but I'm not sure. Please tell me what you think. I'm not sure if if I like chapter four, but oh well please read and review.
1. Default Chapter

  
  
  
  
  
Inevitable, Chapter One  
By Corynth  
  
  
If you had requested that they look back on their old school days, and asked them what they remembered most, they would have talked about each other. If you had asked what they remembered most fondly, yes, it would have been each other. Even if you had asked them what they remembered least fondly, they would have, after they got over the really awful stuff, started speaking of each other.  
  
The Dream Team. Long since come, long since past. But years later, they were still in each other's hearts.   
  
Hermione Granger was a witch who had long ago left behind her opportunity for a wonderful life. She lived in a dingy muggle apartment and had forgotten how to use much of her magic. "And all for a man," she would mutter to herself, as she swept up nasty little rich children's messes in a blue uniform with a white apron. But then she would smile, because she would remember the man she gave it all up for.   
  
Ron Weasley was rich, a prosperous member of the ministry of magic. He had no real friends, but he was happy. Or at least he had convinced himself that he was. When he lay in bed at night, and she wasn't there beside him, he thought, well at least I have my safe at Gringotts. And when he went out to eat for every meal because he couldn't cook, he didn't want servants, and she wasn't there to do it for him, he thought, well at least I have my safe at Gringotts. And when he wandered the empty halls of his mansion, devoid of laughing children and her smiling face, he thought, well at least I have my safe at Gringotts. When he picked up a book, though, he thought, well at least I have... But he didn't have anything. He didn't have her.  
  
Ginny Weasley had disappeared from the face of the earth long ago, exiling herself to Northern Ireland, where she worked as a waitress in a little pub. She let them forget about her. She let them believe she was dead.  
  
Harry Potter was more alone than any of them. He was more lost than Ginny, richer than Ron, and had a job worse than Hermione's. He was an international Quidditch star. Adored by millions, Harry Potter had never been so lonely. He was just a symbol, something false. He didn't really exist. His reality had faded when he didn't become an auror. Now he was just a smiling face on a poster.  
  
It was inevitable that they all meet up again someday.  
  
Ginny was washing the counter.  
  
Harry was taking a look at the country before his match against Ireland.  
  
Ron, sick of England, had moved, and decided finally that he didn't want to be completely alone; he was hiring a maid.  
  
Hermione was meeting someone at a little pub for a job interview.   
  
They were coming together again.  
  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing, obviously.   
  
  



	2. Inevitable 2: In Old Friends Eyes

  
  
  
Inevitable 2: In Old Friend's Eyes  
  
Hermione pushed her way through a crowd of drunk Irishmen to a seat at the bar. Immediately a fire haired waitress was in front of her, sporting a thick accent.   
  
"Hello there, miss. And what can we be getting for ye today?"   
  
Hermione looked up and met eyes that she had so many times looked into before. She and the waitress gasped.   
  
"Gi-" Hermione began, but stopped herself. She was thinking nonsense, and refused to let herself do so.   
  
"Her-" Ginny began, but stopped herself. She was thinking nonsense, and refused to let herself do so.   
  
Unfortunately, both women did this at the same moment, thereby depriving themselves of the realization that could possibly have occurred.  
  
"Water, please," said Hermione, and Ginny walked away.  
  
  
Ron opened the door and looked for the woman he was interviewing. He didn't know her name. He felt that knowing her name would have jinxed her, and somehow she would have been terribly awful and he never could have possibly hired her, like all the other woman he had interviewed.   
  
Spotting Hermione, Ron strode through the room to the bar and sat beside her.   
  
"Excuse me," he said, "Are you here for a job Interview?"  
  
Hermione drew her gaze from the red haired waitress who looked like Ginny, and turned instead to her possible employer.   
  
"Yessir," she said shyly, looking down and holding out her hand, "I'm Hermione..."  
  
"Lovely, I'm Ron."  
  
If she was insistent on his knowing her name, at least he could interrupt her and prevent the knowledge of her last name. He wouldn't look at her, he was too embarrassed.  
  
Funny, her name is Hermione.  
  
Funny, his name is Ron.   
  
  
Unfortunately, they were both too shy to inquire the other about this coincidence of familiar names, and to shy to look in the other's eyes, in which case they surely would have realized what had happened.  
  
As Hermione and Ron carried on blindly with the interview, Harry entered the pub, pushing his way to the bar, sitting down a few places from Hermione, though neither she nor Ron noticed he was there. Ginny did, but by the time his identity occurred to her, she had already begun to wait on him.  
  
"Hi there sir, and what can we be get- Harry!"  
  
Harry wearily looked up into the eyes of yet another fan. Little did he know that she was a fan of a very different kind. Unfortunately, he had never before now looked in her eyes intently, so they brought no recognition to his mind.  
  
"Yes, I am indeed Harry Potter. I will sign anything you wish."  
  
"Oh, no I just... if you will excuse me."  
  
And Ginny hurried off, begging a fellow waitress to serve Harry Potter, and, thinking the man divine, the girl was only too happy to agree to Ginny's Plea.  
  
It was Ron who had the next revelation, and, coincidentally, it too concerned Harry.  
  
Ron looked up, over the woman's head as she talked about something that he was not listening to. His eyes fell upon Harry, and he interrupted her as he quietly exclaimed,  
  
"Oh, shit."  
  
Hermione looked up. His name being what it was, she was sorely tempted to say, "Ron!" but of course, she did not.  
  
"What, sir?"  
  
"Nothing. Just an old friend from school I don't want to see again."  
  
Hermione looked to where he had fixed his gaze, and gasped at the sight of her old best friend.  
  
"Harry," she whispered, but Ron didn't hear.   
  
"He was my best friend if you can believe it," Ron went on. "But after I fell in love with this girl, Hermione, actually, her name was, we grew apart. I just didn't have enough attention for him. Funny, I dealt with being ignored by him for a long time, and I took it, but I guess he just couldn't.  
  
Hermione had turned slowly around and had now come to realize it was not a coincidence that this man's name was that of her first (and only) true love.   
  
"Ron?" she asked quietly.  
  
He looked at her, into her eyes, and found there recognition.   
  
For a long time, they just sat there staring at each other, until Ron whispered,  
  
"I didn't mean to apparate away like that and not come back Hermione."  
  
"Where did you go?"  
  
"Home."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"I-I'm sorry."  
  
"Me too."  
  
Okay, well..."  
  
Hermione then broke the unbearable akwkardness by leaning forward and kissing Ron with all her might.  
Harry glanced over to his right. Ugh, disgusting. The things people did in bars! Harry did not want to witness the foreplay of two people who were probably hideously drunk. And to top it all off, they had to have red and brown hair. Well, I don't want to look at that spectacle anymore! He thought.  
  
It is questionable, then, that he continued to stare until they broke apart, and kept on staring thereafter. Looking at the two people, who were laughing and crying at the same time, the slightly mousy woman who had fallen into that gangly man's arms, Harry was reminded profusely of Ron and Hermione in their Hogwarts days, always ignoring him, always leaving him out. That was why he went far away from them after school, to get away from it. He heard they had a fight, and Ron left her, but it didn't matter to him anymore.  
  
At that moment, Ron looked up and met Harry's eyes. Harry gasped slightly, finding that these two people did not merely resemble his old friends, they were his old friends.  
  
Hermione sat up and she and Ron both gazed at Harry, who gazed right back, finally standing up and going over to them.  
  
"Well," he said, "I see some things never change."  
  
At that moment, as they stood in silence, two against one as it had been before, Ginny brought the butterbeer Ron had ordered. The waitress she had made serve that side of the bar had gone home, so Ginny had to do it. Placing the keg on the counter, the forgotten girl looked up and found them all staring at her.   
  
"Ginny?" said Ron.  
  
They had come together again.  
  
  
  



	3. Admitting and Resolving

  
  
  
  
Ginny stared, speech impossibility. Harry and Ron regarded her with a kind   
  
of shocked wonderment, but Hermione gazed again into her eyes, and the long ago   
  
best friends shared a look of confirmation, a look that said, "It was you,   
  
wasn't it?"  
  
Then Hermione stood up, reached across the counter, and took the forgotten   
  
girl in her arms.   
  
Suddenly Ginny didn't feel so forgotten.   
  
"Oh, Ginny," Hermione whispered into her hair, "I tried to get to you   
  
before you left, I really did. I just found out too late. What with Ron and..."  
  
"I know," Ginny interrupted, "I know."  
  
The girls broke apart, and Ginny climbed over the counter with renewed   
  
strength. Then she remembered that Harry was but a few feet from her, and nearly   
  
fell to the floor as her feet reached it.  
  
Unfortunately, or perhaps not so, Harry caught her.  
  
Frozen, Ginny stared up at him, terror and deeply rooted passion lacing   
  
her eyes.  
  
Harry gazed down at her, and for the second time in his life noted that   
  
she was stunningly beautiful. The first time, he'd realized this, well, he   
  
hadn't been quite ready to accept it.  
  
Ginny righted herself and stood staring at them.  
  
No one spoke for a good while, until Harry finally managed,  
  
"Ron..."  
  
Ron looked up at him.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Do you understand why I was upset?"  
  
"No, Harry, I don't. For years I was always second, your side kick, that   
  
tall kid hanging around with   
  
the famous Harry Potter. How many times do I have to tell you I felt ignored?   
  
You knew, you knew I did, but you didn't do anything to make it better. And then   
  
you lost my attention and you couldn't take it! And it was so unfair because   
  
even before Hermione took over my heart, Ginny had already taken over y-"  
  
"Shut up, will you!"  
  
"What is it, Harry," Ron sneered, "Never did tell Ginny you loved her did   
  
you? And now here she is, standing in front of you, and you still haven't told   
  
her."  
  
Ginny, positively shocked, looked from Ron to Harry, and then to Hermione,   
  
who shrugged, obviously as ignorant as Ginny herself.  
  
Ginny returned her gaze to Harry, and she found was looking at her out of shy eyes.  
  
"Harry?" she said softly.  
  
But he shook his head and turned back to Ron. Ginny looked down, dejected.  
  
"Ron," Harry said, not looking at him, "You're right. I'm sorry."  
  
He looked up to Ron's face, and the two men stared at each other for a moment,   
  
neither saying a word. Then Harry whispered,  
  
"I really am, Ron."  
  
And Ron finally smiled.   
  
"Apologie accepted, mate. And I'll give you and Hermione almost equal   
  
attention from now on. Promise."  
  
"Almost equal?" Harry asked playfully, as they shook hands.  
  
"Well yeah," Ron grinned, "somebody's got to have my attention while   
  
you're off doing things I don't approve of with my sister."  
  
"Hermione laughed.   
  
"Well that rules out talking to her, Harry! Better not look at her either.   
  
You never know of what Ron might disapprove."  
  
"Oh, you shouldn't talk Hermione," Ron said, obviously having forgotten   
  
poor Harry again, and then in a high voice nothing like Hermione's, "No, Ron, I   
  
don't think we're old enough to kiss, we're only twenty three!"  
  
"Ron! We kissed long before we were..."  
  
And their conversation carried on like this for several minutes. Harry and   
  
Ginny watched them, and then Harry chuckled, turning to Ginny, now sitting on a   
  
barstool.  
  
"Guess this is the time I don't get his attention, huh?" he said smiling.  
  
Ginny returned his smile, though weakly.  
  
"You shouldn't let it bother you, I..." but she trailed off, not really   
  
wanting to talk about that anymore. "Was Ron telling the truth, Harry?"  
  
Harry looked at her, then he walked over to Ginny and got down on his   
  
knees. This frightened her terribly, but harry made not marriage proposal,   
  
merely rested his arms on her leg and placed his head on them.  
  
"Yes."  
  
Ginny was taken aback, but after the shock faded, she reached out   
  
instinctively to stroke his hair. Then Harry stood, took her face in his hands,   
  
and kissed her.  
  
And everything was well.  
  
A/N. Okay, I don't really know if I liked that chapter. I think there are a few   
  
things that need to be cleared up, so I might do one more part. Tell me if you   
  
want one in your reviews. I own nothing, by the way. And sorry for the format.  
  
  
  



	4. Ignored Realization

  
A/N this is a chapter that you need to understand a sentance in the next. It is back in the Hogwarts days of the characters. Sorry for the format.  
  
  
Harry walked alone down the corridor. He was heading for lunch, though it   
  
was almost over. He'd spent most of the period in his room, staring at his   
  
ceiling and feeling lonely for no reason he could identify.   
  
When he'd finally remembered that lunch awaited him, it was nearly too late.   
  
Even now, he'd probably only be able to wolf down a sandwich or two.   
  
He was still several floors away from the great hall, and he didn't expect to   
  
encounter anyone. However, Harry did not realize that he wasn't the only lonely   
  
person in the school.  
  
A slight snuffling brought Harry out of the haze in which he walked. He stopped   
  
and looked to his right. The sound was coming from behind a tapestry that swept   
  
the floor, and was protruding as if someone were behind it. Perhaps against his   
  
better judgement, what with all the dark arts threatening the wizarding world,   
  
Harry lifted the tapestry and went behind it as well.   
  
The figure, hidden in the dimness of the tapestry, gasped. As his eyes   
  
adjusted to the darkness, Harry realized who it was.  
  
"Ginny?" he asked with mild surprise, "What are you doing back here?"  
  
Ginny hurried out from behind the tapestry, Harry close behind her.  
  
"Ginny, what..." But he trailed off, catching sight of the girl in proper light.  
  
Her hair was tousled slightly, though to a point of messiness that   
  
accented her face and looked beautiful. Her eyes, shining with tears, were huge   
  
and brown in her head. Her freckles dotted her face lightly, and she stood   
  
holding her arms, looking away from him. For a moment, just a moment, Harry felt   
  
something stirring in him, something he had not felt since Cho, but now stronger   
  
and... and perhaps truer. Harry stared at this girl in front of him, and then,   
  
his heart not working with his mind, he reached out and touched her face.  
  
She whipped her head around, Harry's hand pushed away by the movement. She   
  
stared at him for a moment, and he at her. Her look of surprise then turned to a   
  
gaze of pure anger and disbelievement, and Harry did not know why. Confused, he   
  
turned and ran.  
  
Harry never did go to lunch that day.  



End file.
